Month: January 2013

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…

I've been reading Claire Tomalin's book on Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. For those of you who are as ignorant as I was about this side of the Dickens story, in 1858 the author left his wife Catherine, taking nine of his ten children, including quite young ones. (His household was managed by Catherine's sister Georgina.) Tomalin traces out the extraordinary story of Dickens' involvement with a woman 25 years younger than he, Nelly Ternan. Nelly came from an acting family, and Dickens had produced and taken part in some theatrical events with her, her sisters and her mother. But he did not set up with her - although several of…

A powerful recent paper in Sociology by Jarman, Blackburn and Racko (for ref see below) raises some tough issues when it comes to thinking through the implications of gender segregation in occupations. (I'm grateful to Athene Donald's blog for drawing it to my attention.) Covering 30 countries, the authors show (I'm summarising, obviously) that the position of women is more favourable where segregation is high. In the first place, men's advantage on pay is less in countries where occupational segregation is high. I knew that Scandinavian countries have low inequality but high segregation, as women work largely in personal services such as health and education. But the pattern extends beyond these countries.…

I've just looked at the EU Monitor on education and training 2012. The EU target is for 15% of adults to take part in adult learning by 2015. There's no chance this will be reached; in fact the participation rate is going down. In 2011 it was 8.9%, for formal and informal learning combined. 'Adults' are defined as 25-64. At some point countries are going to have to adjust their statistical categories to reflect demography, and push up the upper age boundary. As you can guess, I looked for the gender split. It's 8.2% for men, and 9.6% for women - nearly 20% higher. Only in Turkey and Rumania do more men…

I went into the Palace of Westminster for the final public hearing of the Women and Skills Commission, with Secretary of State Maria Miller and Parliamentary Under-Secretary Jo Swinson. Maria Miller is SofS for Culture, Media and Sport; she attended the Commission, I assume, because she carries the equalities brief (being one of the very few women in the cabinet....), whereas Jo Swinson represents the Dept of Business, Innovation and Skills . (No sign of DBIS’ SofS, Vince Cable...). Perhaps ironically, Ms Miller in fact spent a lot of time talking about culture - not her ministerial diet of theatre and music, but culture at work. She stressed the need…

I've just received an update on the data which I commissioned from HESA on the gender breakdown of students ot Britain's elite universities. I asked for this because one argument which I've heard against the idea that women are now dominant amongst HE students is that this was happening outside the so-called Russell Group institutions. Men were supposed to be still numerically superior in elite universities, and so still had as firm a grip as ever on top qualifications. If that had been the case, it might have done something to explain why women's increased overall competences have had such a low impact on senior professional careers. But the data last year showed…

The PP got its first publicity splash yesterday with a 2-page feature in London's Evening Standard ! In a previous blog I referred at some length to the excellent OECD report Closing the Gender Gap. I quoted one figure which I said I found hard to believe - that only 3% of part-time women workers went on to work full-time. I checked with the OECD and they very promptly and helpfully gave me the reference source. It turns out that the 3% refers specifically to women who use part-time employment as a stepping stone to full-time having started outside employment altogether. The broader figure for progressing from part-time to full-time is 14% , and I…

I've quoted Virginia Woolf before: "The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in other professions." Well, the latest Costa prizewinner list certainly does something to say she was right about that success. It's not technically a clean sweep: a husband gets in there as the illustrator of the graphic memoir Dotter of her Father's Eyes (what a triple hit of a title). Alongside Mary and Bryan Talbot are the novelist Hilary Mantel, new writer Francesca Segal, poet Kathleen Jamie, and children's author, Sally Gardner. Can anyone put up a similar example of prizewinning dominance in a competition open to all? Add that to…

Welcome to 2013. I didn't switch off Paula completely, but steered clear of blogging etc. One xmas party conversation led to an interesting hypothesis: that male CEOs who have daughters will get it (the PP, that is, or gender issues generally) , but won't if they don't. The reason my cocktail acquaintance gave for her idea is that those with no children won't get it anyway, and those with sons will think that no one can combine professional work with children, because sons take up so much organisational energy. Only those with daughters will see that work and parenting can be combined with (relative) ease if things are sensibly managed. She…